


Board Up

by Samuraiter



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-24
Updated: 2013-10-24
Packaged: 2017-12-30 07:57:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1016084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samuraiter/pseuds/Samuraiter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spending time with the Investigation Team occasionally means having to play Naoto in board games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Board Up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DarkSeraphim](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkSeraphim/gifts).



Yū, before returning to his parents, had left only one set of instructions for his good friends in Inaba, and that had been to make certain that Nanako never had to be lonely again. Dōjima had, in turn, agreed to let any of them come to visit his daughter and keep her company, provided that they did so in groups of two or more. (Kuma did not always remember to leave his costume at home, and it helped if he had Yōsuke to remind him.) Since that day, the Investigation Team, to one degree or another, had become a familiar presence at the Dōjima house.

Chie brought her PS2 in order for her, Nanako, and Rise to play rhythm games together. Yukiko helped in the kitchen, though she occasionally had to hand the reins to Nanako if it started to look like one of her dishes stood a good chance of turning into ... one of those words her father did not allow her to say. (He said that _he_ had permission to say words like those because of his job.) Yōsuke, Kanji, and Kuma – especially Kanji – frequently got drafted into doing chores around the house, mostly because they proved to be the opposite of good at rhythm games.

Naoto had the least time to come and visit, but she made good for the days that she _could_ make it, and the entire group tended to turn up if she happened to be in town. For Nanako, that meant board games. She had several in her closet, but she normally did not have any players, so she jumped at the chance to play at the same table as her friends. (She doubted that Yū minded if she borrowed them while he was in a different city.) They tried a number of different titles, but the game that seemed to come up most frequently was a particularly beat-up copy of _Monopoly_.

_Monopoly_ had appeal for the entire Investigation Team because each member brought a different personality – and, by extension, strategy – to the table. Chie played for all the yellows and greens, leaving the reds for Yukiko. Rise had a gift for tricking the other players into doing things that improved her position. Kanji did everything he could to either get Boardwalk and Park Place or buy all four railroads. ... Yōsuke got banned from the board one time for looking at dirty pictures on his cell (Chie said), so he ended up being the banker at every game after that. Kuma only watched.

Or did he? He claimed that he and Nanako played as a team, but he tended to meander around the house, disappear into the television, eat things from the refrigerator (not always food, either, as Yōsuke discovered after they went home one time), and fall asleep under the table. He reminded her of several little boys in her class, but he _did_ listen if she got his attention, and he seemed to realize that she was perfectly okay playing by herself. But did he notice how often the game boiled down to Nanako playing against Naoto in a race to the end?

Naoto had a different approach to _Monopoly_ , and Nanako frequently wondered if any of the others could see what she was doing. She entered the game having a long-term objective in mind from the start, and Nanako made a point – in her head, since she did not need the others to know – of trying to predict how she was going to try to win from one game to the next. Regardless of how many days passed between games, Naoto, unlike the others, seemed to have a clear memory of each outcome, and she adjusted her strategies accordingly.

The last game – before Yū came back to Inaba and got everybody embroiled in the next mystery. That had been the game that had seen Nanako stop observing ... and start acting. She had managed to start putting houses on the light blue properties, and that had been the end of Kanji after he made another run for the railroads. (Too late, since Chie and Yukiko had those divided between them.) Rise had the green properties, and she had made a good go of it, but she had lost almost all of her money after landing on the one orange property that Naoto had used for a hotel.

Both Yōsuke and Kuma – and the bankrupt Kanji, too – stared intently at the board, seeing, perhaps for the first time, the two masters of the game running up against each other. Chance played a role in _Monopoly_ , but strategy enabled a good player to stack the odds in her favor. Nanako had learned that Naoto liked to plan at least a dozen steps ahead, and she had been guessing each move correctly. But did that mean the detective had set a trap for her? Naoto had always been a nice person, but nice people could still be devious.

Naoto rolled the dice, landing on the Electric Company and paying the correct fee to Rise. If Nanako had guessed correctly, that enabled Rise to pay off one of the spaces she had mortgaged. If she did _that_ , though, it left her open to losing the game through one unlucky move, but Rise liked to make those risky moves. She also liked to try and insure them before making them, so she dangled the lure that Nanako had expected, offering to trade her the Water Company for a cash infusion. To take it or not to take it? What did that mean for Naoto?

Silence for about five seconds, then ... laughter? Naoto, the undisputed master of keeping a straight face, had put all of her cards, all of her money, on the table, and her shoulders shook as she attempted to contain her mirth. The others looked at her as if she had gone crazy, but she shook her head, took a deep breath, looked up from the board, and said, smiling, "I think I need to start teaching you how to play chess, Nanako-chan. You win." Chess? The one game that looked like Go, but had all of the cool medieval pieces? Hmm.

Later, Yū was flabbergasted when Nanako checkmated him in three moves.

**END**.


End file.
